


You, Me, and the Starscourge Make Three

by VolxdoSioda



Series: Whumptober 2018 (Complete) [17]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Ardyn is not evil, Body Invasion, Day 17 - Drugged, M/M, Noctis is a little shit, Tentacles, Whumptober, symbiote au, the Starscourge is intelligent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 20:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16394741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: Ardyn rarely remembers what life was like before Star came into his life. He still gets flickers of it, here and there, spots where his life wasn't so painful that he can't recall, bits of light in the darkness. Sometimes he dreams them, and sometimes he has them in the middle of the day. But they always leave him feeling warm, like something in his chest is unfurling again, tentative and soft.Star likes the feelings too.'Old wounds ache'the Old Astral whispers to him during long nights and longer days,'but good memories can take the strongest sting away'.(Ardyn, Noctis, the Starscourge, and the problem of fulfilling a Prophecy when the Big Evil turns out to be not so evil.)





	You, Me, and the Starscourge Make Three

**Author's Note:**

> So there's been copious amounts of 'Venom' all over my dash, and I would like to take the time to say I know absolutely shit all about Marvel or its many, many comics, but Venom's premise of 'symbiote and human co-existing and calling each other pet names and adopting kids' intrigued me. So I'm tossing this out with a FFXV spin on it, because why not.
> 
> Also, it just barely skirts the line of Whumptober, but whatever. I'm having fun.

Ardyn rarely remembers what life was like before Star came into his life. He still gets flickers of it, here and there, spots where his life wasn't so painful that he can't recall, bits of light in the darkness. Sometimes he dreams them, and sometimes he has them in the middle of the day. But they always leave him feeling warm, like something in his chest is unfurling again, tentative and soft. 

Star likes the feelings too.  ** _'Old wounds ache'_** the Old Astral whispers to him during long nights and longer days,  ** _'but good memories can take the strongest sting away'._**

But sometimes, the memories are bitter and cold, like a blade against the skin. Sometimes he screams in those memories, and Star rushes to fill in the gaps, spreading ichor and blackness across him until he can breathe again. Star pours their essence down his throat until all he tastes is the sweet rot of decay, and his mind goes fuzzy, hazy beneath their grip. He lets Star control them then, because letting the symbiote hold the reins is easier than fighting the battles of old off himself. 

Star has no qualms keeping him in the black ichor as long as he needs it, although over their long life together he's needed it less and less. When he was younger, more vulnerable, more afraid, and Star was little more than a drop in the cosmos somewhere further than Ardyn would ever know, they needed each other more. Star clung to him, whispered prayers for him not to leave them, and Ardyn wished Star would never leave him, but would say otherwise out loud, because he wanted them to have a choice.

But the Old Astral has not left him since their bonding, and likely will not do so until Ardyn at last passes. Which won't happen until they're both ready.

They may never be ready. And that's perfectly fine with the both of them.

 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

Noctis Lucis Caelum is young, stubborn, and headed for a great deal of tragedy. Ardyn can see it in the way he holds himself, in the whispers Star gives him as he meets the young man for the first time in Galdin Quay. With Niflheim preparing to storm Insomnia under pretenses of a peace treaty, all the major ways to Altissia have been put under lock and key. Which means no boats, and no way to Altissia that is natural. 

Ardyn does his best to give a fair warning, but given he's spent the morning fighting nightmares, Star choking him with the Scourge's ichor, most of the talking is left to Star. And Star tends to come across as more threatening than reassuring. 

They wind up leaving after tossing one of the memorial coins at the poor lad, and Ardyn later ruminates over the baby Prince's fate as he sits by the fire, staring into the flames, Star curled around him like a cloak. 

"Do you think he'll escape?"

**_'Only if he's smart enough to ignore the Dragon-God's words.'_ **

Nobody ignores Bahamut anymore, though. Ardyn raises a silent toast to Noctis, and goes to bed. He does not dream.

 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

The only reason Noctis ever comes to learn about Star and their symbiotic relationship is because Ardyn finds him hurt in a mineshaft, his friends nowhere in sight. Even after so many years made wayward by Bahamut's command, Ardyn is still a healer first and foremost, and so he gently traverses down the rocky side of the shaft to where Noctis lays, one leg trapped beneath a hefty boulder, face pinched with pain and pale. 

"Oh my," Ardyn says. "This is going to hurt, I'm afraid."

Noctis is watching when he calls Star out, and the black ichor coats him, lending him strength as he hefts the boulder off his leg. They both hiss with displeasure when they see the wound - the foot's definitely busted. Crushed, in fact, leaving a smear of blood and gore in it's wake. Noctis doesn't whimper, but his eyes are wide and his cheeks are pale and he's breathing a little too fast. 

They kneel, and Noctis  _does_ gasp here, as Ardyn gently lifts the foot, and Star wraps itself around it, adding their own power into the spell Ardyn hums. When Somnus banished him and pitted the Crystal against him, his healing was weakened. But with Star's help, he's back to his old level of power, and broken bones are little in the wake of that.

Noctis stares at him when he lowers the uncrushed foot back to the earth, Star fading back behind his skin once their power is no longer needed. "Why?" he croaks out. There's a shout down the nearby tunnel - Noctis' friends have arrived.

Ardyn stands. "Because, dear boy," he says, turning to go back the way he came. "We don't have a fight to pick with you."

That right there is the start of it all, though he won't know it for a few more weeks yet. Not until Noctis slides across from him in the diner one evening and says, "So, I never thanked you for saving my life."

 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

He ends up saving the boy's life again not a week after they end up sharing a platter of fries at the Crow's Nest in Old Lestallum. He hears word from several soldiers about an Insomnian who snuck into a Niflheim base and got himself captured - it takes next to no time from there to put the pieces together and figure out the entire picture.

Once again, Noctis' entourage is safe from the fallout. But none of them saw where Noctis went - a smoke bomb had gone off, and they'd all fled, thinking Noctis was right behind him. Ignis blames himself, Gladio blames himself, Prompto blames himself, and secretly, they all blame each other. 

Ardyn sighs, and drives up to the fort in question, heading right down to where they keep the prisoners.

In the stark lighting, Noctis looks worse for wear. He hasn't been transferred yet, which is a blessing, but that's the only one. His clothes have been torn and hang loose from his body, he's been chained to the ceiling, and he's clearly dehydrated and lacking basic care.

Here, it is Star that interferes, knocking the cameras out and urging Ardyn forward. 

The touch of the Scourge is a drug all its own, and Noctis groans softly when Star traces itself across his skin in webbing patterns, briefly sliding towards his open mouth like they want inside, only to wrap firmly around his neck instead. What little lucidity is in those pale blue eyes fades beneath a drugged haze of bliss as Star's chemical makeup reacts to Noctis' body. When Ardyn gets rid of the chains and hefts the boy up into his arms, there's no fight. 

There  _is_ a fight when he walks out of there with their prisoner, but the base doesn't last the day. Ardyn and Star see to that, and soon Caligo is dead and Loqi is dead and there is very little standing between Noctis and his freedom. Ardyn calls Ignis, instructs him on where to wait, and hands Noctis over when he gets there with little fanfare.

"Why go so far?" Ignis demands of him, as Gladio and Prompto cradle Noctis between them like he's the most precious thing in their world. "You're our enemy, aren't you?"

"No," Ardyn says. "I haven't been, am not, nor will ever be your enemy. Simply because I'm Chancellor doesn't mean I stand with Niflheim. Sometimes, taking up a position is for survival, not favoritism."

He drives off after that, Star waving goodbye as he does so. They like the boy, and miss his warmth. 

Ardyn can't say he's much different.

 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

The first kiss they share, he and Noctis and Star, is in the darkness of the groves of the Vespergrove, minutes after Noctis returns above ground, mythril clutched in his hand. Ardyn watches from a safe distance as Aranea offers them a ride back, and Gladio, Prompto and Ignis follow her. Noctis starts to follow, then stops and glances over at the line of trees where Ardyn is watching, then back to his friends, before darting over. Nobody notices.

"Hi," Noctis smiles up at him, nervous and proud and shining like a beacon. Star shivers beneath Ardyn's skin, wanting to touch their boy - run tentacles up and down his body, feel him tremble. 

"Hello yourself, dearest," Ardyn says instead, and smiles in return. "I see you've found the famed mythril. Well done."

"Yeah, well... we couldn't have done it without you, y'know? I know the guys said some stuff back there, and acted like assholes. But they didn't mean it. I've just... I've explained it. But I don't think they get it. They will, though."

"Will they?" Ardyn asks, both Noctis and himself. They're suspicious towards him at the best of times. Hostile at their worst. What good could come from that?

"Yeah. They just need to see. They'll get it." He rocks back on his heels, peering up at Ardyn beneath feathered lashes. "So, um..."

He's painfully transparent, but rather than being shy about the whole matter, his chin lifts. "May I kiss you? Both of you?"

Ardyn's eyebrows raise. "Both of us?" he asks, but he's already stepping forward, Star practically humming beneath his skin, eager to get beneath Noctis' own flesh and taste him. "Well, I suppose you  _do_ deserve a reward for your hard work."

Noctis clearly expects brutality; perhaps some passion. He gets the second, though not the former. Ardyn kisses him soft and gentle, and Star follows the lead, until they're pulling sweet little gasps and moans from their boy, until Noctis is clutching at their shoulders, until nobody is really breathing, though they probably should. Ardyn suddenly wants a bed beneath them, wants to explore skin he has no right to touch or taste, but  _wants_ with a hunger that surprises him. If it were only about sex, it might be understandable, but it isn't about sex. He wants  _Noctis._ They both do.

The only reason they stop is because Ardyn backs Noctis into a tree, and moments later Star murmurs  ** _'someone comes'_** in his ear just before splashing sounds are heard. Noctis groans when he pulls away, and his mouth opens, revealing a glittering blackness connecting them as Star pulls herself back out of him, vanishing back down Ardyn's throat from whence she came. There's saliva and ichor dripping down both of their chins, and Noctis looks positively  _sinful._ It takes a considerable amount of Ardyn's restraint not to damn the consequences and dive back in.

But he does, and Noctis manages to clear away evidence of their activities right as his friends round the corner. Ardyn pastes on a smile. "Hello lads. I was just talking to Noctis about your conquest. Congratulations on the find."

"Thank you Chancellor," Ignis says tightly, hooking Noctis' arm through one of his own and pulling him back behind him none too discreetly. "If you'll excuse us though, we'll be on our way."

"Of course. Fly safe, you four!"

Noctis waves to him as he leaves, and Ardyn can't stop himself doing the same. Prompto sees them and squints at him, but says nothing as they vanish out of sight. 

Ardyn sighs. "Oh my darling," he says to Star, "We  _are_ in trouble."

 ** _'Yes'_** Star agrees,  ** _'but what sweet trouble it is.'_**


End file.
